


Like Real People Do

by Shippershape



Category: Eye Candy (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 09:02:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3482354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shippershape/pseuds/Shippershape
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little ficlet to ease the pain of 1x08 and get us all through until Lindy and Tommy have officially patched things up. Lindy gets a surprise visitor, and realizes sometimes forgiveness is less about mercy and more about survival.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Real People Do

Lindy is already halfway down the rabbit hole when someone knocks on her door. She pulls up a screensaver on her desktop, watching the photos of Sarah and old police files turn into a series of geometric shapes. She makes her way to the door hesitantly, somehow certain it’s Tommy. She’s wrong.

“Lindy?” The voice that trails in from the hallway is familiar, but not one she was expecting.

“Yeager?” She pulls the door open, confused. The usually quiet detective greets her with a nod.

“Can I come in?” She hesitates. This could really only be about one thing. And she really doesn’t want to talk about that.

“I…sure.” She steps back, letting him in, and they stand in awkward silence while she waits for him to speak. When he does, it’s not what she expects.

“I’m not Ben.”

Lindy stares.

“I mean I’m not… I don’t spend a lot of time with Tommy outside work. We’re not exactly best friends.” Yeager clarifies. Now she knows where this is going, and this conversation isn’t one she’s eager to have.

“Yeager, I-”

“I don’t know a lot about Tommy, other than he’s a hard worker and a good cop. I wasn’t around when your case was active, I didn’t see how that went down.” He’s not a fidgeter, Lindy notices. His arms hang loosely at his sides, gaze focused and direct. She feels a little like a suspect.

“It doesn’t matter how it happened. I’ve seen enough to know what he did. He could have told me about Sarah months ago, he could have never set me up. It was bad enough finding out that Ben was a cop, that he lied to me and used me. But Tommy was supposed to be…” She trails off, not entirely sure what Tommy was supposed to be. Different maybe. _Safe_. “Fool me once…”

               He sighs.

               “I don’t like to get involved in other people’s business but I like you. And I like Tommy.”

               “You don’t even know me.”

“I’ve been following you around for a couple months now. I know enough. And I know that Tommy would rather give up his badge right now than hurt you again. He can’t change the past, but he was just doing his job, Lindy. He has different priorities now.”

“Right. Like me?” She scoffs, folding her arms across her chest. Yeager doesn’t flinch.

“Yeah, like you. I don’t blame you for being angry, but I don’t blame him for keeping his secret either. You two make a really good team, you should try to work it out.” He looks like he’s about to say something else, but seems to think better of it.

“I can’t do it. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but he used me. He lied. Whatever he thought about me back then he knows how important Sarah is to me. He knew. And he still kept that from me. So I can’t.”

Yeager regards her for a moment, indecision written all over his face. He hesitates, then-

“Why are you so mad at him?”

“What?”

“You’re seriously worked up right now, it’s obvious. Why?” _Is he kidding?_ She wonders. He’s not.

“Because he lied to me, because he used me, because he-”

 “You’ve been lied to before, you’ve been used before. Why is this different?”

“Because-because he’s… Tommy.” She struggles. The words are there, she just can’t find them. Doesn’t want to find them.

“So?”

“I trusted him. I-I relied on him. I thought I knew him.” Something about Yeager’s patient eyes remind Lindy of confession. Maybe she’s overdue. “I need him. And he let me down.”

 _There it is_. A weight leaves her body with those words, and it’s like for the first time since she found out she can see clearly.

“He let me down.” The pain of that suddenly hits her is like a freight train, everything that was safe, everything that was steady, it was Tommy. And now that illusion is broken, shattered by the realization that he lies just like everyone else. He wanted something from her, just like everyone else.

“He knows.” Yeager says softly. “And he’ll make it up to you, if you give him the chance. I might not know everything about him, but I know how he feels about you. Take your time, but don’t write him off forever. Tommy won’t make the same mistake twice, he won’t let you down again.”

Lindy directs her eyes at the ceiling, the weight of Tommy’s betrayal and the honesty in Yeager’s face threatening to break her. She wants to believe he’s right. She means it when she says she needs him, and not only because he’s all she has left, not because he’s her best chance at finding Sarah. She just needs him in that cruel and most basic human way, unconditionally. In this moment she fights it, has been fighting it all week, ever since they last spoke. She doesn’t want to hold on this tight to someone who can break her like this. But-

“I can’t do it without him.” She says. There doesn’t seem to be any point in denying it anymore. She might be able to find Sarah on her own, might somehow be able to bring her home. But these years of living an arms-length away from a real life have left her tired and bitter, and Tommy brought something solid back into her life. He was her tether to the real world, her anchor. The thought of giving that up was paralyzing.

“So don’t.”

“I don’t know if I can trust him again.” Lindy isn’t sure he’s the same person to her anymore. She suddenly wishes he was in front of her, wants to see his face, assure herself that the lines of his jaw are the same, that she still knows the person behind those sometimes unnervingly compelling eyes.

“Do you want to?” Yeager raises an eyebrow. Lindy huffs in frustration.

“I-yeah. I do.”

“Then just let him to try to earn that back. Don’t do it for him, do it for you.” He gives her a last knowing look, then turns to leave. She stops him.

“Yeager.”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you care so much?”

He looks thoughtful, hand resting on the doorknob.

“I guess I’ve seen what you guys have. I don’t think you realize it, but that kind of connection is rare. It seems like a shame to waste it.” And with that he’s gone, leaving Lindy alone with her thoughts, and a vague sense that every once in a while the people who hurt you the worst are the ones are the ones you most need to forgive.


End file.
